Kongsberg Gruppen Asa

Good morning and welcome to the presentation of Kongsberg's first quarter results. This presentation is done as a webcast only and you will be able to send in questions through the chat function. This is the first quarter that we present our results after the spin-off of Kongsberg Maritime. Kongsberg Maritime has already presented their figures earlier this morning and are presented in Kongsberg's financial statements as discontinued business. Therefore, Kongsberg Maritime is not included in this presentation. I will also take the opportunity to invite all of you to follow our upcoming Capital Markets Day that will take place on the 10th of June in the city of Kongsberg. It will also be possible to follow the event online. Please note that this presentation contains forward-looking statements that by their nature involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that could cause the actual results to differ. Today's presentation will be delivered to you by our CEO, Eirik Di, and our CFO, Martin Vientel. With that, I will hand it over to our CEO, Eirik. We start over. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. I am very pleased to present the first quarter results for Kongsberg. Before I dive into the details of the first quarter, I would like to share a few comments about Kongsberg and the markets we operate in. Over the past few years, rising geopolitical uncertainty has transformed the global landscape, redefining how countries think about globalization and security. Defense, security and resilience are now top national priorities, together with sustainability. Countries are increasing investments and accelerating decisions. In this market, Kongsberg has established market-leading positions in key segments, such as in air defense, missiles, weapon stations, and autonomous systems. We continue to scale up our capacity to deliver on our order backlog and future demand. Therefore, we are in a unique position to take advantage of the big trends that are driving demand in our industry. In the first quarter, revenues increased by 26% to 9.2 billion from the same period last year. Earnings before interest and tax were 1.5 billion, resulting in an EBIT margin of 16.6%. The results were driven by high volumes across the company, with strong growth in air defense and missile projects specifically. Order intake in the quarter was very strong at 27 billion, taking the total order backlog to 152 billion, a record level. And Martin will provide further details about the financials in his presentation. In April, the demerger of Kongsberg Maritime was completed and the formation of the new Kongsberg became official. The combination of our defense and aerospace business with the sensors and robotics expertise in our discovery division creates a company that combines market-leading defense positions with the rapid innovation of the civilian tech sector. The first quarter was characterized by high market activity with several important new contract awards. However, our number one priority remains to deliver on our promises to our customers, and I'm pleased to report good progress in our project portfolio. And we will continue to increase our capacity to meet current order backlog, as well as future demand. The order intake in the first three months of the year was very strong, at 27 billion. In January, we signed a contract with Poland for the delivery of counter unmanned aerial systems, or counter US, to protect the country against evolving threats from drones. The contract is worth about 16 billion kroner to Kongsberg, one of the biggest contracts we have ever signed. The deliveries will take place over the next two and a half year. Other notable awards included a 2 million contract order for deliveries to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. The agreement extends our production of F-35 components through 2030. In February, we signed a contract with Patria worth 140 million euros for the delivery of Protector remote depot stations for the German and Swedish KALS vehicle program. And we will deliver several hundred remote network stations, and the contract has the potential for substantial follow-up orders. The first quarter of the year also marked not one, but two major milestones for our standardized vessel concept. Kongsberg and Solve Ship Design were awarded the contract to design standardized vessels for both Norway and Canada. In Norway, we will work closely with the Navy and the Norwegian Defense Materials Agency to define the final design for up to 28 new vessels. In Canada, Kongsberg & Solt will work with local partner Adaptive Marine Solutions on standardized vessels for the Coast Guard. While the nominal value of these contracts is modest, The agreements represent a breakthrough for standardized vessel concepts. There is also a significant interest from other countries. In the Discovery Division, we signed two new contracts to deliver the Huginn Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, or AUV. We also signed two contracts for upgrades to exist in Huginn. The defense market is the passage-going segment for Huginn. but all these customers were in the civilian market. This shows the true dual use potential of this technology. We also signed a contract to deliver hydro-acoustic sensors to the PolarMax 2, an icebreaker and a research vessel with the Canadian Coast Guard as the end customer. The contract underlies our ability to deliver hydro-acoustic solutions for advanced research platforms. One of the key learnings from Ukraine and the Middle East has been the impact of drones and the importance of being able to counter them. Counter US typically combine radars, sensors, cameras and acoustics to detect, identify the threat. Then the system will use effectors like jamming or electrostation to mitigate or eliminate the drone. The need for a European drone wall to the east has been raised, and we consider the contract with Poland to be the first step in this direction. Kongsberg has developed and delivered country-US solutions since 2018 to the United States, as well as to Ukraine. We have delivered more than 25,000 remote depot stations and turrets to 30 countries over the years. Remote depot stations can be ConferUS enabled, so we are able to offer customers a reliable solution that can be implemented fast. This is not only about retrofitting on existing systems, but also adding new capacities to the armed forces. As I mentioned, delivering on our order backlog is our number one priority. In March, we completed the delivery of the Joint Strike Missile to Japan. Japan was the first international customer to select the JSM. Since then, several allied nations have chosen the system, including the US, Australia and Germany, in addition to Norway. We have been building up our production capacity over the last few years. The Nexus missile factory in Norway is producing at a high rate. The same is true for the production of NASEMs and weather stations. Although we are at high level, we still have the flexibility to increase production further in response to rising demand. In Australia, as you can see on the picture, the construction of the MISA factory is progressing well. We are on track to start occupying the MISA factory in 2027. Our new factory in the US is also progressing, with MISA being produced in 2028. With that, I will hand it over to Martin, who will guide you through the numbers in greater detail.

Thank you, Eirik, and good morning to all of you following us through the webcast. I'm happy to present what is yet another solid quarter for Kongsberg. New this quarter is the inclusion of figures from 50-50 on joint ventures. This is done in order to align the external reporting with internal governance and highlights the significant value that these represent. For the time being, this means that Kongsberg Satellite Services is included in the figures of discovery and KTA naval systems in defense systems. To start off, let's take a closer look at the quarterly order intake and also the order backlog. Total order intake for the quarter came in at 27 billion, resulting in a record high order backlog of 152 billion for the group. As mentioned, the main contributor was the 16 billion counter-US contract with Poland. This contract has a relatively short lead time, with the majority of the value expected to be realized in 2027 and 2028. On the right-hand side, you will find a divisional split of the current backlog. Defense Systems accounts for 80 billion, roughly 53% of the total backlog. Missile and air structure stands at 60 billion, approximately 40%, while Discovery accounts for 8%, or just above 11 billion. It is important to note that the nature of Discovery's business is more short-term with faster deliveries. The backlog spans out in time, with 54% scheduled to be delivered in 2028 and beyond. This underlines the long-term horizon of several of our important contracts. 28% is for delivery in 2027 and 18% in 2026. And this is providing us with solid visibility for the period. Next, let's look at the revenue. Kongsberg delivered a strong quarter with revenue coming in at 9.2 billions. This is an increase of 26% compared to Q1 2025. All three divisions contributed with growth ranging from 8% to 45%. Activity is high across all areas and we are working continuously on scaling operations and ramping up production capacity. And this is done in order to deliver on our backlog and the future demand that we see. Defence systems grew revenues by 45% in the quarter, from 2.9 billion to 4.1 billion. The strong performance makes the division the biggest contributor in the quarter. The main driver was improved project execution on air defence projects, and we are currently delivering on several large projects with a long-term horizon. Moving on to missiles and air structures, they delivered a top-line growth of 22%, resulting in a revenue of 2.8 billion up from 2.3 last year. We continue to ramp up our missile production and the pace of deliveries is going according to plan. Similarly to defense systems, the division is delivering on multiple large contracts that span several years into the future. Discovery grew revenues by 8% in the quarter. Deliveries within the small satellite segments were particularly strong, together with drone detection and inertial solutions. We continue to see increased demand related to security and surveillance, both below sea level and also in space. Kongsberg Satellite Services is now part of the divisional figures on a proportionate level, and the Discovery's share of this is about 273 million. With successful execution on the order backlog, we expect the full year top line growth to be above what we achieved in 2025. However, there will of course be normal quarterly fluctuations. Turning our attention to profitability, EBIT came in at 1.5 billion with a corresponding margin of 16.6%. This compares to just below 1 billion and a margin of 13.5% last year, meaning that we have an increase in EBIT of 55% and a margin improvement of 3.1 percentage points. And this demonstrates our ability to exploit benefits of scale, although, of course, profitability will vary between quarters. Looking at the divisions, defense systems drove performance with a growth in operating results of 62% in the quarter. This results in an EBIT of 796 million. The margin came in at 19.2%, up from 70.2% in Q1 2025. Missiles and air structures delivered an EBIT of 480 million at a margin of 17.4%. This yields a growth rate of roughly 12% due to higher missile production volume. The margin decreased by 1.6 percentage points due to the particularly strong deliveries that we had in the first quarter of 2025. Discovery increased EBIT from 295 million last year to 362 million this quarter. This represents an increase of 23%. The improvement was driven by both volume and favorable project mix, particularly from the space segment. The margin came in at 17%, up from 15% in the first quarter of 2025. Discovery will move into new facilities, and we expect short-term fluctuations on margins during the implementation phase. As we now include numbers from 50-50 on joint ventures in our overall reporting, Kongsberg Satellite Services is included in Discovery, and KTA Naval Systems is included in Defense Systems. This leaves Patria, of which we own 49.9%. As always, the first quarter numbers only include January and February due to a reporting lag. Q4, instead, will include four months. Patria reported revenues of 163 million euros and an EBIT of one million. Kongsberg's share on net income for the quarter was negative with 14 million NOK. The revenue growth of 51% was primarily driven by the armored vehicle business and certain one-off items. Therefore, the growth is not fully representative of what to be expected for the full year. We expect both the revenue and profitability to increase for the rest of the year. A milestone in the quarter was the delivery of the first 6x6 vehicles to Germany. This was part of the CALS program. Patria has over time grown their backlog and secured several significant contracts. The backlog stands at 3.5 billion euros as of February, up from 2.4 billion last year. Note that this is not included in Kongsberg's reported backlog. Similar to Kongsberg, Partra has been and continues to invest in increased production capacity to meet significant demand. We continue to have joint business opportunities through our remote weapon stations and the CAWS program. With that, I will leave the floor to you, Erik, for some final remarks.

Thank you, Martin. At the end of the first quarter, the order backlog was 152 million. About 27 billion of this will be delivered during the rest of 2026. Callers from framework agreements and aftermarket services will come in addition to this. As a result, we expect revenue growth in 2026 above the 2025 level. Deliveries of missiles and air defense systems continue to be the key revenue drivers. Demand remains high and we expect to win new contracts for our core products from new and existing customers during 2026. The NSM is one of our biggest successes. The missile has been selected by 14 countries so far. JSM was launched later than NSM and has so far been sold to five nations. In today's market, we see strong demand for the Joint Strike Missile. And we continue to invest in our capacity to deliver. We see synergies between our defense and civilian technology portfolio across defense, security, and surveillance. Kongstad has a strong market position, a significant order backlog, and a solid financial position. This provides a good basis for continued growth in 2026 and beyond. Today, we are focused on the first quarter performance. On June 10, in just five weeks, I look forward to welcome you to Kongsberg for our Capital Markets Day, where we will share more details about Kongsberg and our ambitions. Thank you. I will now open up for questions. Thank you, Erik. We have some questions from the audience on the webcast. Can you comment on the momentum within AUVs and sonars for commercial and defense markets, and whether you have seen increased interest for these products in Q2? I would say we can take a step back. I think Kongsberg has a very unique position in this segment. We have developed kind of dual use technology for decades. So we have the technology needed in this context. And with the growing demand for underwater vehicles and also other sensors in water, we see an increased demand when we look at the challenges around the world. So yes, we will see an increased demand for this. Thank you. From Magnus Rasmussen in SED, is what we can expect from the new missile factories in 2028 already in the backlog? Or will there be additional missile sales with delivery already in 2028? We will, as we have already stated, is that we have built up capacity to secure our current order backlog. but also for future demands. So we're not going into specific details, but the outlook on how we can produce is very much aligned with our customer expectations. And we have an additional question for Magnus Rasmussen. Is the increase in discovery figures versus previously stated figures just due to the inclusion of KSAT through APMs, or have you shifted any business from the old KDA into discovery?

So when we set up the new organization, we took the space business that was previously in Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace, and we merged that together with the old Kongsberg Discovery business. So what you see now as Discovery is the combination of the old Kongsberg Discovery and the space business of Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace.

And then from Hans-Erik Jakobsen in Arctic, can you please give us an update on Zone 5? Yes, so we announced that last year, in the last year, that we have agreed to procure Soundfire, a US-based company, producing and developing low-cost missiles, but being able to be produced in high numbers. And we are currently awaiting formal response from the US government related to the transaction. And we expect this to happen within this half year. And from . Can you elaborate a bit on the margin development and what we should expect from the remainder of the year?

So I think that we had a really good start of the year in the first quarter with 16.6% EBIT margin. And throughout the rest of the quarter, you should expect the margin to vary based on project and product mix.

Thank you. Just to be specific, you expect revenue growth in percent in Norwegian kroner to exceed the 2025 growth, also when considering how much stronger Norwegian kroner is versus Euros and Dollars this year?

Yes, that is correct.

Good. And then from Ole Petter Sjövold in Sparbank 1, could you quantify the contribution of KTA naval systems in the fence system in the quarter?

Yeah. So you will see more of the numbers in the notes of the report, but the KTA naval systems have limited effect on the inclusion in the APMs.

Thank you. That concludes the questions from the webcast. Thank you all for attending the webcast this morning, and see you soon.